In June, the Port Royal Club told the City of Naples that its rebuilt clubhouse was "nearing completion" and that management expected a grand opening in October 2026, ahead of the building's first season. October ends this week. The opening date that now appears in City records is December 10.
That date comes from the agenda memo for the September 16 City Council meeting, posted September 10. The memo lists five new special-event applications from the club at 2900 Gordon Drive. Together they make up the club's first-season calendar. Two weeks earlier, Council had approved a set of rules that decide how that season will sound from the street and the beach.
Five Dates, Four of Them Thursdays
The memo lists each event with one date:
| Event | Date on the City agenda | Day |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Back | November 19, 2026 | Thursday |
| Grand Opening | December 10, 2026 | Thursday |
| Santa Brunch and Nutcracker | December 20, 2026 | Sunday |
| New Year's Eve | December 31, 2026 | Thursday |
| Seafood Extravaganza | January 14, 2027 | Thursday |
The sequence matters. Welcome Back comes three weeks before the grand opening, so the club has planned a member gathering on the property before the formal debut. The Santa Brunch and Nutcracker follows ten days after the grand opening. New Year's Eve and the January Seafood Extravaganza then carry the calendar into the heart of season.
The Santa Brunch, the New Year's Eve event and the Grand Opening share that Council agenda with the long-running Cambier Park art fairs and the Naples Boat Show at the City Dock. These are member events at a private club. The City lists them because special events on private property still go through Council.
Four Winter Seasons Without a Clubhouse
Hurricane Ian destroyed the old one-story clubhouse on September 28, 2022, as Gulfshore Business reported. Since then the club has gone through the 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons without its main building. WINK News reported that the club ran out of trailers while it worked on plans for a code-compliant rebuild.
In 2024, the Naples Press reported that a food truck and lunch trailers beside the beach were handling member dining. That September, Council voted 6-1 against the club's request for a 5,000-square-foot dining tent with modular kitchen trailers. The club said it would keep offering other ways to dine and gather. So Welcome Back on November 19 is the first time the club's calendar will be built around a permanent building again.
The building is also very different from the one Ian took. Gulfshore Business described the approved plan as a West Indies-inspired, three-level clubhouse with an overall height of 48.6 feet. It includes indoor and outdoor dining, a Gulf-front infinity pool and deck, and a two-story garage, in a rebuild the outlet put at $100 million. Hart Howerton designed it, and Suffolk Construction built it. Suffolk's project page describes about 62,000 square feet of clubhouse amenities. Beyond the clubhouse, the project includes covered outdoor space, open-air event areas and pools, a separate parking and service structure, and a detached support building with a kids' club area.
The club's guest information page names the venues members will be using: Sand Bar & Beach Deck Dining, Sunset Bar & The Café, The Privateer, and 29 Hundred & Piano Bar.
Council's Six-Month Check Starts at Occupancy
On September 2, Council voted 7-0 to approve the club's live entertainment petition. It allows amplified entertainment indoors and non-amplified entertainment outdoors, seven days a week, in several locations on the property. The motion included one change. Condition No. 10 had used the word "approval," and Council replaced it with "issuance of certificate of the occupancy."
Condition No. 10 sets a status review about six months out. During the hearing, a council member pointed out that counting six months from the vote could cover a period when the clubhouse was still under construction. Council moved the start to the certificate of occupancy, so the review will reflect six months of actual operation. That puts the first season in the review window: Welcome Back, the Grand Opening, the holidays and the January Seafood Extravaganza all fall inside it.
At the September 2 hearing, the club's architect laid out how entertainment would work:
- Seven entertainment locations in total: five inside the building and two outside.
- Both outdoor locations near the center of the property, as far as possible from the adjoining properties on either side.
- Indoor entertainment only when all doors and windows are closed.
- Outdoor entertainment ending no later than 10 p.m., acoustic and non-amplified only, with performers facing away from the neighboring properties.
- No more than two of the seven locations in use at the same time.
- Standardized AV equipment, sound limiters and decibel readings at the property lines to stay within the City's noise ordinance.
The architect also said entertainment would range from weekly recurring performers to one-time performers for events, in the club's dining rooms, social gatherings and meetings.
Rules Set in 2024 Still Shape the Design
The September vote added to rules that were already in place. When Council approved the rebuild unanimously on August 21, 2024, it attached conditions that Gulfshore Business listed in its coverage.
- The south-facing after-dinner lounge balcony on the third level had to be enclosed.
- The sliding doors at the second-level Sunset Bar close at 50% occupancy.
- The pool is open from dawn to dusk.
- If Code Enforcement confirms three noise violations within 12 months, the club goes back to Council.
- The 11-foot wall must be landscaped and cannot carry signs, speakers or lights. The southern beach-access path was removed.
The 2026 design-review application points the same way. The building stays low along Gordon Drive and rises to two stories on the beachfront side. Height and activity both sit toward the Gulf and the center of the lot. The outdoor stages approved this fall follow the same pattern.
More Outdoor Dining, More Parking
The other September 2 vote was also 7-0. It approved 4,370 more square feet of outdoor dining at ground level, with 18 tables, 72 chairs and 26 chaise lounges. The club's application describes the space as central to the property and facing the Gulf. It says the request responded to the popularity of outdoor dining and to requests from members. The petition proposed service from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., within the hours of the club's main food and beverage venues. Council approved the outdoor dining in 2024 by a 6-1 vote. This season's expansion passed with no dissent.
The added dining required a new parking count. That space had been counted as landscape and beach area. The club's traffic engineer, Trebilcock Consulting Solutions, recounted it as food and beverage space and updated the other areas to their as-built square footage. Parking demand rose by seven spaces, from 318 to 325. The club says it will provide 343 spaces, not counting golf cart and bicycle spaces. Council approved the revised parking analysis 7-0 at the same meeting. Some of that parking is across the street at 2755 Gordon Drive, which City filings describe as a fitness and tennis parcel of about 5.52 acres.
So in its first season, the clubhouse will have more seats on the Gulf side than the 2024 plan allowed, two acoustic stages in the middle of the property, and a parking count that covers the extra dining with 18 spaces to spare. The calendar starts with Welcome Back on Thursday, November 19.
The club's return also changes the conversation for anyone with a Port Royal home on the market or in mind this season. Buyers will be touring as the clubhouse comes back to life, and a well-told story about the neighborhood should include it. Michael and Lauren Taranto at Taranto Team are glad to talk through what this season could mean for your own address. Schedule a private consultation.
